BACK FROM LONDON - HOWARD JONES 25TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT:










Photo by Stuart Arnold

Well I'm back from a great trip to London England. Got to visit with relatives, eat at Wagamama's a few times, tour around the city and I had the pleasure of going to Howard Jones' 25th Anniversary gig. He was supposed to have some surprise guests so the speculation on who would join him was interesting. About an hour before the concert was supposed to start who walks out the front of the venue but Nik Kershaw! Being a massive fan of the man I caught up with him and he was gracious enough to pose for a photo with me, taken by his beautiful girlfriend Sarah. Back to the venue entrance and five minutes later who walks out the front door but Nick Heyward! I caught up with Nick and he was kind enough to let me get a picture with him. He plans to release an album in 2009, it could just be him and a guy on double bass, not sure if I got what he said right or not.

The concert was great, Nick performed 'Fantastic Day', another surprise guest Duncan Sheik performed 'For You' and he and Howard performed for the first time ever at a concert their duet 'Someone You Need', amazing to see and hear. Nik later performed an acoustic version of 'Wouldn't It Be Good' with Howard on piano to great applause from the audience.(Note to Nik: you need to arrange a similar gig for yourself to celebrate your time in the industry). Howard performed all the classics as well as some of his new material from his forthcoming album that sounded great with a string section.

I had a VIP pass for the after party where I met Limahl, and Steg (the artist who created the Human's Lib album cover). Also at the party were Paul Young and Nik Kershaw and most of Howard's band that included Nick Beggs, Robin Boult, Robbie Bronnimann and Shaz Sparks.